Seder - the tradition of being well red

It is interesting to note that the holiday with the most restrictions and religious legal demands also leaves room for a huge range of tradition and variation. Have you ever wondered if your holiday traditions run specific to your own family?

I remember the first time we did Passover seder with a family whose tradition it was to use Romaine lettuce for Maror. I thought this was the most weird and exotic thing. I mean after all, doesn't everybody use the horseradish for Maror? It was only at this time did I realize that many of the rituals I had learned were actually traditions that took centuries to develop and evolve. Not only would I find out that there is more than one way to skin a "Maror" but that often "my" traditions were in the minority. So why was this seder different from all other seders?

Passover demands many things from its followers. Not only do we have to rid leavened products from our diet but from our homes and every thing we come in contact with. We are not even allowed to own products that might become leavened. Typically one will start cleaning the house a few weeks before the holiday but the end game from house to house is similar, but come seder night each table can look distinctly different.

Just look at the Haroseth on the table. This food is meant to remind us of the hardship of slavery, perhaps symbolic of the mortar that held the bricks together and yet is usually a sweet dish. It may have apples, honey, dates, prune juice, cinnamon, walnuts, raisins or other dried fruits. Haroseth is one of the main guests on our seder plate and yet a myriad of traditions as to what this dish is and to what is symbolizes.

One of the main complications in traditions comes from the tradition of some to not eat certain foods which are not outright forbidden but have been removed from the "fly list" by years and years of practice. This becomes an issue when inviting other people over, but if we can remember that each person's tradition can be mutually honored than a solution will present itself.

I can't help think about the future of our traditions. What of the traditions that we have now will my children take with them and what rituals will they adopt along the way. Adopting and inventing are two things that come hard for me even though intellectually I believe it is good. My life partner and I have similar Passover traditions so we have less tension around holiday ritual, but perhaps those tensions are used to expand our horizons, like me and the Romaine lettuce which I now find out has a very substantial following and even stronger Halachic background. I can't go back on my radish for Karpas though. I draw the line at having the radish to dip in salt water.

For me the seder is complete when I see the radish because I can hear my father (even when he is doing his seder far away in his home) say with an ironic voice. "... and now we will eat the radish...a green vegetable...(laugh laugh)...borei pri HaAdomah". My father always says the word Adomah with a Yiddish accent. It was only later in life when my Hebrew was a bit better that I understood the double-entendre...since Adomah (meaning the earth but also the color red) accurately describes the color of the radish too.

Next year in Jerusalem! (with lots of radishes)